Earlier this year, I wrote about attempts to shut down Pickup Pal, a ride sharing website, in Ontario. The Toronto Star reports today that the Ontario Transport Board has ruled that the website is operating illegal in the province by helping strangers offers rides for a fee.
Ontario Transport Board Rules Against Pickup Pal
November 12, 2008
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Episode 280: A Fall Update on Where Things Stand on Canadian Digital Policy Reforms
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This could be a problem.
Quite possibly a big one, in more than one sense.
sets precedence?
As Mr.Eric Dewhirst stated that Pickup Pal can only be used for “travel from home to work only… can’t cross municipal boundaries… must ride with the same driver each day, and… can’t pay the driver more frequently than weekly”, this of which the restrictions probably imposed by the ruling, doesn’t this set precedence for other rideshare sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji? Furthermore, if the argument that follows is that Pickup Pal was ‘making available’ accessibility to ridesharing, couldn’t a similar argument be construed to other social network sites such as facebook, or even university driven rideshare communities?